


Dangerous game

by Mimmi_ger



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Rape/Non-con Elements, Truth or Dare, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 02:27:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14070879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimmi_ger/pseuds/Mimmi_ger
Summary: It started as a game but turns into something she hadn´t expected.Harrietta Potter accepts a dare to play a prank on their sinister potions professor.But the more she works on her plan the more her thoughts wander in an entirely unexpected direction.What happens when the joke gets busted?And what will Snape do?





	Dangerous game

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> This is not betaed, so all mistakes are my own...  
> Grammar and I are no best friends, but I tried ;)
> 
> Enjoy reading! :)

Dangerous game

The bottle spins on the floor, all eyes are glued to it as the movement slows down and finally stops entirely.

“Harry!” Lavender giggles.

Harry breathes deep in and out. She had the whole evening successfully avoided to be the next, but now luck had left her obviously. Sighing, she looks up.

“Dare.”

Some of her classmates grumble disappointed that she doesn't take truth. But honestly, most of the questions their game master Lavender asks are nothing Harry wants anyone to know, with the exception of Hermione, maybe.

“Then dare it is.” Lavender smirks and shuffles through her stack of tasks.

*

“Snape? Are you kidding me?” Harry stares at Lavender with horrified widened eyes. “Even if I´d do it, I could never tell you. You´d probably learn if I was successful by the news that they found my dead body hung somewhere in the dungeons. Because there´s no way of…of pranking him and live to tell anyone.”

Lavender who sits opposite her chuckles lowly.

“So, you appeal your dare?” she asks mockingly.

All eyes dart to Harry. Oh heavens what should she do? Curling her lips, she fills her lungs with as much air as she can get in and, while exhaling slowly and restrained, she shakes her head. The Gryffindor side in her roars with pride. Yes show them you´re brave. The Slytherin part already starts to form sneaky plans how to succeed without ending as a corpse.

“I´ll do it but under one condition: You give me thirty days. I need time for a plan and for realizing it.”

“Well, you still need to know which prank you shall play, don´t you?” Lavender cheers and Harry knows immediately she´s in trouble. Again Lavender shuffles through a stack of little cards and chooses one blindly. As she looks down a huge, nasty grin spreads over her face.

“I´m afraid you won´t like it.”

Harry grabs for the card, peers down and pales.

“No way. Playing any prank is bad enough but…but **that**?”

_> >Tell someone you´re in love with him or her and get him or her to kiss you<<_

After everyone read the card and a moment of shocked silence, her classmates break out into gleeful howling, cheering and snickering. All except Hermione who bites her bottom lip and glances anxiously at Harry.

“I don´t know if you should do that. We all know Professor Snape. I don´t think he will right away kill you but what if he gets you expelled? All for a silly dare.”

Inwardly Harry agrees with Hermione, wholeheartedly, but she already said yes. She can´t back out again, not without looking like a wimp. It is more than foolish, that's for sure,  and if she mucks it up, she will never hear the end of it. But Harrietta Potter is not known for cowardice, is not, was not and never will be.

“It´s fine Mione, I just need a plan and a good explanation.” Harry grins broadly, both for convincing her best friend and herself.

 

**Day 1**

Breakfast is a dull matter every Monday morning and today is no exception. But while almost every student goggles bleary-eyed onto their plates, Harry sneaks secretly glances over to the teacher´s table. Snape sits there in all his ill-tempered, black-clad, greasy glory and glares into his cup as if its content insults him personally.

Merlin, how should she accomplish her goal? Especially without making their anyway strained relationship even worse?

It has to be sneakier, more subtle than just staying behind after the next Potions lesson and simply walk up to him, tell him about her (fake) feelings and use his astonishment to press her lips to his and flee afterwards as fast as she can.

On the other side, why not? Harry stares broodingly into her cereals.

But of course Harry, fancy idea! That's the safest way to make him hex you, at best... Scolding herself, she shakes her head and focuses her eyes again, meeting directly Snape´s dark gaze.

“Damn,” she mumbles and quickly lowers her gaze to the table. That is just what she needs right now, Snape catching her staring at him. Damnit, Lavender and her stupid game-nights!

 

**Day 2**

Not much accomplished yet and still no idea how to act, Harry sits in Transfiguration and stares sightless at the blackboard.

“Miss Potter! Stop staring holes into the air and start dispersing your hairpin,” Professor McGonagall says sternly and with an arched eyebrow.

Harry turns her attention to the hairpin in front of her but, instead of disappearing, the thing twists and bends and ends up in the shape of a heart. Immediately launches the Professor at her, chiding her for being inattentive and assigning her an extra essay about the differences between vanishing and form-shaping. But Harry listens only with half an ear as an idea pops into her mind. Turning the little heart in her hands over and over, Harry looks up to Professor McGonagall, nods and smiles.

*

Harry sits in her bed, a blank paper in front of her. She has absolutely no idea how to start not to mention what to write in general.

Drawing a deep breath, she dips her quill into the ink and let it hover over the paper for a moment.

_Snape,_

She scratches it out.

_Dear Severus_

No, definitely not. Not yet however.

_Dear Professor Snape,_

Well it is a compromise, isn't it?

_I write to you because I don´t know how to tell you otherwise._

_For some time now I_

I what?...Harry chews broodingly on her bottom lip.

_For some time now I fancy you. It might sound childish for you, but it isn´t for me._

_Yours sincerely_

_Me_

Satisfied with the result Harry rolls the parchment up.

 

**Day 3**

Expectant and anxious, Harry waits for the morning post and as the owls finally arrive, she is already a nervous wreck. Her hands are sweaty and shake, her mouth is dry with her tongue sticking uncomfortable at the palate and her heart beats violently in her chest.

What if he identifies her handwriting right away and knows immediately that the letter is from her?

Strained not to stare all the time to the teacher´s table, Harry glances every few seconds out of the corner of her eye to Snape.

The tawny owl lands gracefully in front of him, extends her leg and waits patiently until Snape takes the small roll of parchment away, then she rustles her wings and flies away.

Harry holds her breath. Snape unrolls the parchment, his eyes darting over the few short lines. At the end of the letter, he narrows his eyes, a frown starts to crease his forehead and he reads the letter again.

Harry´s heart makes a strange backflip.

Snape reads her letter a few times, the frown deepening with each turn before he carefully furls the parchment and tucks it beneath his wide, flowing robes. He stands up and with long strides, that twist and billow the hem of his robes in its wake, he leaves the Great Hall.

 

**Day 4**

Like the day before, Harry waits anxiously for the owls to arrive and watches then carefully how Snape reads her letter, again without signature. Best to start slowly.

She can´t help but smile as she sees his obvious confusion about getting again post. Her smile grows as he reads the few lines again more than once.

But now she sits in the dank and gloomy Potions classroom and stirs feverish in her Honesty Potion, a mild variation of Veritaserum that doesn't compel the user to spill every secret but to answer questions honestly, though it is simpler to evade any statement.

“Well, well, Potter, like always a complete failure.” Snape´s dark, velvety voice drawls directly behind Harry.

Forcing herself to stay calm, she leans back in her chair to look up and feels the brush of soft material at the back of her head. A shiver runs down her spine and she jerks away. Snape bends down to get a closer look in her cauldron, his breath ghosts oddly hot over her cheek before suddenly it is gone and Snape stalks to the front of the class. He bothers not even with taking points for imbecility. Harry accepts this happy coincidence gratefully and stirs on as a movement at the teacher´s desk attracts her attention. With a small smile, which she hides carefully behind her cauldron, she notices how Snape unrolls her two letters and re-reads them. The parchment looks slightly crumpled like someone had held it often.

Wow, did he read those trivial little lines of lower affection that often? How would he react if she´d write him more intimate things?

Harry´s thoughts drift away and with a dull slurping sound her potion boils over and flows in thick streams over the workbench and on the floor.

“Potter! You imbecilic moron! Twenty points from Gryffindor and see that you clean up that mess,” Snape snarls and quickly pushes the letters in his pocket.

Cleaning takes much longer than the remaining lesson. The potion is viscid and glues to every small crack of the floor and so Harry is still occupied with scrubbing when her classmates leave in a hurry.

Low mumbling let her pause and look up. Peering over her desk, she glimpses Snape bend over his desk and mumbling something while his quill flies over the piece of paper in front of him. Grinning, she gathers ideas for her next letter and hurries to get finished with cleaning.

*

Much later that day Harry lies in her bed, propped up on her elbows and tips repetitive the feather of her quill against her lips.

_Dear Professor Snape,_

_I very much hope you like my letters and treasure them as what they are meant, a sign of my admiration, my feelings for you._

So far so good, now to the trickier part. More intimacy, show him how serious you are.

You can do that Harry.

_Today I could not stop thinking of you._

Well, that is not even a lie. Harry smirks.

_I imagined you prowling through the classroom, with long but careful strides. Controlled and elegant._

Oh boy, she can´t believe she really wrote that. Harry glances down on the paper and shifts into a sitting position, frowning about how to go on.

_I could almost feel your hot breath on my face as I pictured you bending low over my cauldron to look inside. You´re standing so close I´d only need to lean back to touch you._

_Now as I write about it, my heart thrums fast in my chest and I wish you were here to calm it or let it race with other emotions than longing._

Harry gulps. She wrote never before such a letter and now she is writing something like that as a joke to a man she despised from second one of their first meeting. Glancing again on the letter, she crumples it harshly and throws it away.

Such rubbish.

_Dear Severus,_

_I hope you don´t mind me calling you that._

_I watched you reading my letters the last two days. You seem to like them, given the crumpled state they are in._

_I can´t stop thinking about you anymore._

_Maybe you wonder why I not reveal my identity to you…Well, I´m afraid you won´t believe the sincerity of my words when you know who writes you. But I promise you will sometime know who I am._

_Until then you shall know that I admire you from afar._

_Yours_

_Me_

Harry stares on the words slowly drying on the parchment and sighs. No matter how she turns it, what she is doing is plainly mean. Even if it is Snape.

 

**Day 5**

The bad feeling in Harry´s stomach doubles as another school owl lands in front of Snape. Different from the other mornings he lays the letter aside and proceeds in having breakfast. Harry is almost about to stand up and leave early for Herbology as he finally unrolls the small letter.

Even from her seat she can see how his expression changes into something softer, only briefly but still visible before it returns to his habitual scowl. Hurriedly Harry lowers her head as his searching gaze roams through the Great Hall.

“Are you writing him those letters?” Hermione whispers.

“Yes. I can´t go to him and confess my undying love for him, can I?”

“You shouldn´t do it. He´s only human, too. No particular nice one, but stil...What if you hurt him?” Hermione asks obviously worried.

“Sorry Hermione, but did it ever stop him from insulting and tormenting me? He hurt my feelings more than once, I´m sure he´ll survive it,” Harry all but snaps and jumps up to hurry to her first class.

 

**Day 6-8**

Over the weekend Harry can't find the nerve to write any letters not to mention that she's clueless what to write to begin with. Snape however seems to expect a new letter given that he gazes upwards as soon as the post owls arrive on Saturday. But as it becomes clear that no letter comes for him, he quickly stands up and leaves with a strange expression on his face, one Harry is completely unsure how to read. On Sunday it is just the same.

On Monday morning then, a brown owl swoops down on Snape and drops a letter in his lap, no small roll of parchment but a real enveloped and sealed letter.

It had taken most of the night for Harry to write it, but Hermione´s words rang still in her ears and somehow she felt a twisted kind of guilt after seeing Snape almost crestfallen as no letter came  and  so Harry tried to make up for it with lengthen the Monday letter.

Though she still has no exact idea why. It is all a joke, right? So why actually bothering?

Harry watches rather pleased how Snape eyes the envelope suspiciously. His eyes widen as he unfolds the sheet and gazes at it. Harry´s observation however is disturbed as Lavender sits down next to her, happily chatting with Parvati but then leaning towards Harry.

“Well? News about the Snape issue?”

Irritation stirs in Harry´s guts, and again she doesn't know why, but as she turns to Lavender, she wears a grin.

“I´d say work in progress.”

“Pity, don´t torture us and take the whole month, will you?” Lavender says and returns then to her conversation with Parvati.

Harry sighs and looks back to the teacher´s table just in time to see Snape walk down the aisle between the tables and disappear out of sight.

*

This night Harry wakes up from a strange dream. A tumultuous, muddled thing that featured mostly Snape.

Snape, how he smiles at Harry as he finds out she´s the anonymous letter writer. And how he then slings his arms around her and pulls her in a gentle embrace, followed by a soft kiss.

Harry stares up at the canopy of her bed and shakes her head. Her heartbeat calms only slowly to a normal level and she finds no sleep again, no matter how hard she tries.

 

**Day 9**

Snape creeps through the classroom, commenting in his usual nastiness every other potion and halts, of course, behind Harry.

“Potter, what is that?” he asks. His voice is disdainful and he taps his wand against the cauldron.

Harry does not turn around to see the sneer on his face. She swallows as the dark wooden stick appears in her focus and she notices bewildered for the first time Snape´s long and delicate, though potion stained, fingers. They look almost too slender for a man but from own experience Harry knows that they are not at all weak or fragile but strong and quite capable of a firm grip.

Somewhere at the edge of her consciousness, Harry notices the words _points_ and _detention,_ but it takes Hermione´s elbow into her side that she snaps back into reality.

Snape sits meanwhile behind his desk again and stares with unveiled loathe at Harry.

“What´s wrong with you?” Hermione hisses but doesn´t wait for an answer and returns her attention to her own potion.

Right, what is wrong with her? Snape snarls at her and she muses about his hands?

Harry rubs her forehead.

*

_Dear Severus,_

_I must admit I have nowadays a hard time concentrating. Actually, since I first wrote you. All the time my thoughts return and circle around you._

_Just today I couldn´t help but think about your hands. You know you have the hands of a pianist? They are so slender, with long fingers and I wonder what it would feel like if they'd travel over my skin. I imagine them slightly rough, but not too much with enough smoothness that it must be a sensual feeling._

Closing her eyes at the evoked image in her mind, Harry groans. Merlin, that can´t be true!

But it is, Harry thinks as the images behind her closed eyes play on.

How could that happen? How the hell can that be her real thoughts about Snape? Oh damnation, that isn´t good. Blimey that is Snape. Snape! The greasy git. Nastiness in person. Always sneering and insulting, but…

_And there´s another thing that occupies my mind: your voice._

_I only now learn to appreciate its deep rumbling. It is so full and rich like chocolate and trickles thickly like syrup down my spine when you speak, even when you insult me._

Holy, fucking hell…She has to stop that. Now!

_Yours_

_Me_

Harry swallows thickly. She can´t send him this, can she? Oh Merlin…

She folds the letter neatly and slides it into an envelope, laying it nervously aside.

 

**Day 10**

Snape blushes.

Harry presses her lips together and lets her gaze drift again towards Snape and yes, light pink colours his cheeks as he reads her letter from last night.

As he lays it aside, he looks up and for a brief moment their eyes meet. Harry feels caught and her face heats up, but before the red reaches her cheeks, Snape looks away, sneering about something.

*

It happens as Harry hurries through the castle. She's almost late for Charms and doesn't pay proper attention to her surroundings as she runs into someone and lands in a sprawl on the floor. 

“Open your eyes girl!” no other than Snape snarls. He picks hastily several strewn papers up, which Harry identifies immediately as her letters.

But of course it has to be Snape...

“Sorry, sir,” she mumbles and holds the last piece of paper towards him. Snape snatches it away from her and briefly his fingers touch the tiniest part of Harry´s. Her eyes shoot up, gazing electrified into his dark, unreadable stare.

“Potter,” Snape growls and narrows his eyes suspiciously.

“Sorry, Professor,” Harry squeaks and runs for her life, her fingers still tingling from his touch.

 

**Day 11**

Harry watches in horror as Snape holds the owl back and attaches his own letter to its leg. It´s a miracle he hadn´t done it sooner, really.

“Oh no,” Harry mutters and jumps up from her seat. “Sorry, forgot my essay for Snape,” she says to her friends and flees out of the hall before Snape can send the owl away and finds out who´s sending him those letters.

The owl finds Harry as she hastens down to the dungeons. It shrieks annoyed and lands on her shoulder, nipping painfully on her ear.

With trembling fingers Harry opens the roll of parchment.

 

_To the unknown letter writer,_

_As I assume you are a student, I advise you to stop those foolish expressions of ostensible feelings. I´m not to be fooled and you should be well aware of my reputation._

_S. Snape_

 

Not to be fooled, my arse...

Harry swallows. Her mind starts creating pictures of Snape, hunched over her letters as he tries to figure out what to do with them and finally taking his favourite quill between slender fingers, dipping it in the ink well and scratching this note on a piece of parchment.

Before Harry can stop herself, she lifts the paper to her nose and sniffs it lightly. A little disappointed she notices that it smells just like common parchment and nothing more, no tiny trace of its owner.

Blimey what is she doing? Shaking her head, she looks back down on the note.

This could be her opportunity to stop this. She could tell Lavender that Snape found out, maybe she could even ruin today´s potion and earn a detention and act foolish enough during that so he'd assign her with a second detention without Lavender witnessing it.

Harry´s stomach clenches funnily at the thought of detention with Snape and then again when she thinks about stopping to write him letters.

I´m going to hell, she thinks and slumps against the wall.

*

_Dear Severus,_

_What makes you think I want to fool you?_

_I´m sincere about everything I wrote._

_Yours_

_Me_

Harry sneers at herself at reading her letter but folds it, stands up and walks the whole way up to the owlery. Hedwig swoops down, hooting softly.

“Sorry, girl. He´d know you and I can´t have that. Not yet.” Harry pats the white owl affectionately and decides for a small dusky owl to deliver her note.

 

**Day 12**

Thankfully there are too many owls landing around Harry, so she doubts that Snape is able to notice to whom his owl delivers the letter, besides, just like herself, he sends a school owl what makes it again more difficult to track.

_To the mysterious person,_

_You claim to be sincere but still I don´t know who you are. So forgive me my scepticism._

_S. Snape_

And now it gets difficult, Harry thinks. She needs time to consider the situation.

 

**Day 14**

Quidditch training is definitely the safest way to clear one´s mind, Harry thinks as she dismounts her broom. There´s only one way to sort things out with Snape: The truth.

And so she leaves the pitch before anyone else and storms up to her dormitory.

 

_Dear Severus,_

_I needed a bit time to think about your words but it´s a bit complicated for me. I only recently started to change my view of you and I´m still in the progress of changing it._

_I´d like to get to know you, though. What kind of person is Severus Snape? Who are you apart from teaching Potions?_

_I understand that you want to know who I am and I want to tell you._

_Maybe in person?_

_Yours_

_Me_

In a rush, Harry dashes to the owlery and sends her letter with pounding heart away.

How is it even possible that one´s feelings can change so quickly? Only two weeks ago she´d seen in Snape nothing more than the greasy, nasty git. And now? Now, she might be in danger to honestly fall in love with the man, only because she started getting a closer, a deeper look at him. Only because she came every day up with things she likes about him. Why became it the truth?

Harry shakes her head and returns to Gryffindor tower to take a shower, a preferably long and hot one.

*

Stepping back into the dormitory, Harry is greeted by a barn owl, sitting patiently on Harry´s bed.

Quickly Harry unties the letter and gives the owl a treat.

 

_4 pm in my office._  

_S._ _Snape_

His office? With all those slimy, creepy things in jars? No way!

Overly happy that the owl still nibbles on its treat, Harry writes quickly a reply.

*

Just to be on the safe side, Harry wraps herself in her invisibility cloak as soon as she leaves the common room. Slowly she descends to the entrance hall and waits.

Ten minutes before 4 pm Snape emerges from the dungeons and walks in long strides across the hall, makes his way briskly through the portal and disappears outside.

Quickly Harry follows and smiles as she watches Snape melt into the shadows of the forbidden forest. Of course he would disguise himself, just in case no one would come.

Scraping all her bravery together, Harry crams her cloak into her bag and walks towards the meeting point she suggested, praying to everyone prone to listening Snape wouldn't be offended. Not too much, however.

"Potter..." Snape says softly and a tad surprised as Harry walks without hesitation to the bushes he disappeared behind minutes ago.

"Hello...Professor." She manages a smile.

"What are you doing here?" Subtly Snape glimpses up to the castle but not subtly enough.

"You can stop looking. It's me. I wrote those letters," Harry admits and holds her breath. Her whole body vibrates with anxiety.

For a moment Snape stares puzzled at Harry but then something in his brain clicks, obviously, because his expression changes from surprised to furious and then to icy.

"I should've known that this is some deprived Gryffindor joke!" he spits with a disgusted sneer.

"No." Harry shakes vigorously her head. Heavens how could she explain this? "It started as a joke. That's true. But it isn't anymore, not for me anyway." Helpless and pleadingly that he believes her, Harry takes a step towards Snape.

"Potter, I don't care. You'll come next week for detention. Every day, do you understand? And this costs you 50..."

"No!" Harry crosses the last distance between herself and her glaring teacher. She clutches desperately on his robes and, without considering the consequences fully, stands on her toes and presses her lips on his.

"I mean it," Harry whispers and leans in again. Snape's scent envelopes her, warm and masculine with something spicy, slightly pungent but not entirely unpleasant. His lips soften under her second assault and for the briefest moment, Harry thinks he's giving in and will return the kiss. But then strong hands seize her wrists, pull her hands away from his robes and Snape pushes her away. Harry stumbles and lands hard on her arse.

The many things she wants to say die a silent death on the tip if her tongue as she lifts her gaze and sees Snape's furiously distorted face.

"One. Hundred. Points. From. Gryffindor," he presses out between clenched teeth. Harry watches him take a deep breath. "And detention for the rest of the school year, beginning tomorrow," he adds so coldly Harry shivers.

Only as Snape is gone for many minutes Harry dares to move. Numb she stands up and registers tears running down her cheeks and dripping from her chin on her shirt.

In dazed shock, she makes her way up to the Gryffindor tower and is welcomed by loud jeering and many hands patting her shoulder. It is almost as if she'd won the Quidditch house cup with her team.

"Harry!" Ron grins broadly over his freckled face. "Man, I never thought you´d really do it. But Dean and I saw you. Jeez, how do you feel? Fred and George filch the kitchen, maybe they find something for you to disinfect your mouth." Ron giggles as if he is drunk, but his expression changes quickly as Harry doesn't join in. "Whoa mate, has the greasy bastard hexed you?" Slowly the tumultuous cheering subdues and everyone stares expectant at Harry who shakes her head.

"This great joke cost us 100 points and I'm in detention for the rest of the year. Excuse me. I'm not in the mood for a party," Harry grounds out and stalks rigidly to the stairs leading to the dormitory.

 

**Day 15**

"Harry, come on, you must eat before classes." Hermione shakes Harry's shoulder.

"No. Leave me alone." Harry pulls the blanket over her head and buries her face deeper into her pillow.

"I don't understand you. You reached your goal. And I doubt very much that neither the lost points nor the detention bothers you that much."

Harry sits up and exhales shakily.

"You were right. It was a mistake."

Hermione furrows her brows.

"I'd say I told you but you know that obviously. So what's wrong then?"

"I didn't lie," Harry mumbles and rubs her hands over her face. "At first yes. But only the first few letters weren't true. Everything after that...Hermione. I...I start to have feelings for him. Real ones."

"Harry, no. You can't..."

Stunned silence falls over the room in which Hermione watches confused how Harry slumps forward and sobs bitterly into her blanket.

*

The first evening of detention crawled unbelievable slow along. Snape spoke only with Harry to give her a task and then disappeared. As he came back three hours later he held the door open and dismissed her silently.

Now it is after midnight. Harry lies in her bed and broods. How can she convince Snape that she's indeed serious? No matter how far-fetched it sounds, still even for herself.

Sighing she stands up and takes her quill and a piece of paper.

 

_Dear Severus,_

_I'm sorry what happened yesterday. But I want it to explain to you._

_It really was a joke at first and started as a game. It was a dare: confess to someone your feelings and make him kiss you._

_I felt uneasy with it, but I thought it funny, regardless. You never even tried to be nice to me and it didn't bother me to wind you up._

_And so naturally the first letters I sent were just the tease and joke you accuse me for but later every letter was true. I mean every word I wrote._

_And I did watch you. Saw your reactions to what I wrote. I think, though you kept being sceptic, you felt flattered. _

_Please, can you give me the chance to convince you of my sincerity?_

_Yours_

_Harry_

**Day 16**

Just to be on the save side Harry had copied her letter, firmly convinced Snape would burn or shred the one he'd receive at breakfast.

Cautiously Harry glances again and again to Snape who stares at Hedwig, holding her leg towards him.

Harry is sure to feel the gush of air so heavily sighs Snape as he finally unties the letter. Hedwig hoots softly but flies not away. Harry had asked her to wait until Snape starts reading. But he doesn't. Silently he stares on the letter in his hands then he looks up to Harry. He narrows his eyes and slides the letter into his robes.

Hedwig rustles unsure with her feathers but takes her leave as Snape waves annoyed his hands.

*

“Potter, stay,” Snape calls at the end of the lesson.

As all her classmates have left, Snape waves her to his desk.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks coldly and pushes the unopened letter towards Harry.

“It’s an explanation. Please, sir, read it.”

“I don’t need your pathetic excuses. If you ever again write a letter to me I’ll make sure that you get expelled for your behaviour,” Snape hisses and stands up.

Harry has to bend her head back to look him properly in the eyes.

“Please,” she says softly and leaves without taking the letter from the desk.

*

The classroom door is open but Snape is nowhere inside. Unsure Harry walks in and waits.

After half an hour she starts pacing.

Snape couldn't have forgotten that she has detention with him, could he?

Another twenty minutes later the door bangs open and hits with a loud thud the wall behind it.

Scowling darkly, Snape strides in, throwing Harry's letter on the desk closest to her.

"Arrogant, egoistic Gryffindor verbiage. Who do you try to fool? What do you hope to achieve with it?" Snape asks lowly but with a furious hiss.

Harry takes a tentative step forwards, but Snape steps back.

"Potter," he threatens.

Harry takes another step and then yet another. She stands now so close she can smell his scent again. She only needs to reach out to touch him and her heartbeat speeds up. She hears her own blood rush through her body. And then, without knowing when she´d closed the gap, she stands directly in front of him. Her hand lingers a moment in mid-air before she places it above Snape's heart.

Snape seems frozen, rigid like a statue. His expression is unreadable. But his heart under Harry's hand beats frantically.

"What I achieve?" Harry smiles tentatively. “This here.” She stretches up and presses her lips on his.

Snape jerks his head away and grabs her wrist. His hand is warm almost hot on her cold skin.

"This is far from funny, Potter," Snape says. His dark gaze bores into her eyes and Harry shudders.

"It isn´t supposed to be," Harry whispers and leans even closer. Her whole body touches Snape now and she feels his heat radiate from him, seep into her and warm her slowly.

She didn't notice that he'd drawn his wand, or how and when, but suddenly the tip of it touches her cheek.

"You don´t know where you get yourself into, Potter.”

The wand slides down her cheek, over her throat and disappears.

Harry gulps.

“Go.” Snape pushes her away. Harry stumbles backwards and only doesn´t fall because one of the student´s desks is in her way.

"But..."

"I said go!" Snape snaps and glares at her. "I don't care what sick kind of game this is, but you will stop it at once."

"But..." Harry tries again.

"Spare me your natural eloquence Potter! Go or Merlin helps me I'll bring you to the Headmaster."

"Damnit! If you'd just listen to me once!" Harry shouts suddenly enraged. “Why do you let me come so close when you don´t want this?” Harry´s hands are clenched at her sides and she stares daggers at Snape.

Snape regards Harry with a gauging gaze and comes then closer. Slow and deliberate with a threatening elegance, like a predator shortly before he pounces on his prey.

Harry swallows and strives hard to not back away.

"What makes you **think** I'm interested in what you could offer?" 

Harry hesitates a moment and then whispers, "Your heart." She can still feel its beating on the tips of her fingers.

“I am no nice man, Potter and I assure you it is a dangerous game you are playing.” Snape’s deep voice vibrates lowly.

Harry feels a grin tugging on the corners of her lips. She can almost taste the victory. He did not contradict her, he only tries to scare her away.

“I know that you’re a miserable bastard,” she dares. Not for nothing she’s a Gryffindor. “If that could keep me away we wouldn’t be here.”

Ever so slowly Snape slides one hand behind Harry’s head and leans in. His breath ghosts over her face before his lips brush, only ever so lightly, against her own.

“Leave, before I lose my self-restraint.”

With his hand on her neck Snape turns Harry around and steers her out of the door which closes soundly behind her.

 

**Day 17**

Harry´s night isn´t good. Dreams plague her and thoughts keep returning on how to react to and generally act around Snape.

As dawn creeps with grey twilight over the horizon, Harry isn´t well rested but determined to let Snape not get away that easy. He is afraid to lose his control? Well hopefully it will take him not too long.

Whistling Harry joins Ron and Hermione for breakfast. Both glance suspiciously and confused at her but say nothing.

*

At exact 8 o´clock in the evening Harry knocks at the door of the Potions classroom. Like she´d assumed nothing happens so she walks down the corridor and knocks again.

The door to Snape´s office opens almost immediately.

Snape says nothing, but his jaw works furiously as he grits his teeth.

“Hello, I´m here for my detention,” Harry says merrily.

Snape says still no word. Harry simply passes him and sits down on one of the very uncomfortable chairs in front of the man´s desk.

“I´ll just sit here and do nothing, that means only if you don´t give me a task.” Harry smiles.

When he grits his teeth harder he will break them, Harry thinks. She watches attentively how Snape stalks to his desk and sits down behind it.

“Will you give me a task?” Harry inquires.

Instead of an answer Snape takes his quill and holds it in a death grip while he scribbles furiously over the student´s essays in front of him.

Harry leans relaxed back, at least as relaxed as possible on this instrument of torture, lays her hands in her lap and watches Snape work through the pile of parchment.

She looks not once away and he looks not once up. After three hours of complete silence, except the scratching of quill on paper, Harry rises and stretches.

“Good night and sweet dreams,” she says softly and leaves.

 

**Day 18**

Harry is not sure if she ever before has worked so hard in a class, especially not in a Potions class. But she is determined to give her best, even if her best is only an acceptable potion.

Hermione and Ron exchange concerned looks as Harry throws herself with ardour into the task.

In the end, Harry´s Antidote for snake bites is not the best in class but certainly effective. Snape regards her with a curious gaze which he inverts at once as she looks over.

*

“What do you think about my Antidote from earlier?” Harry asks and sits again in front of Snape´s desk in his office, looking expectantly over her shoulder.

Snape crosses his office room with three long steps and stands suddenly next to Harry.

“Don´t play games, Potter. It will disagree with you,” he says low and a trace threatening.

Harry smiles, a little, just enough that one can identify it as a smile and peers up.

“I like games.”

Snape growls and almost leaps with a flourish of his robes behind his desk, immersing himself into his grading work.

Harry watches him with a smile.

**Day 19**

With a serenity bordering on naturalness, Harry walks past Snape and takes her seat in his office and smiles.

“I find I miss your snarky comments and mean insults,” she states casually and sees with satisfaction how his jaw clenches.

“Don´t try me,” Snape grounds out, still standing at the door.

“Why not?” Harry smiles wider. “Won´t you sit down and work today?”

Somewhat resigned, Snape closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose but walks then behind his desk, fixing his attention to his work.

*

Harry feels Snape´s eyes on her as she stands up and walks around his office. After two evenings on this hell-chair, her back hurts and a little walking is rather refreshing. She circles the room and stops at the shelf behind Snape. It is filled with the only collection of things that are not slimy and creepy. Neatly sorted and labelled stand butterflies of different size and colour in their glass-boxes. Curious Harry bends towards them and eyes a small green butterfly, whose tag reads “ _Callophrys rubi”._

It is more the feeling of someone standing behind her than the actual knowledge that causes her to turn around. Harry is a little surprised to find herself indeed only an arm length apart from Snape.

“I didn´t know you´re fond of butterflies,” Harry says softly, almost too softly to be audible.

“You know nothing about me.” It is a simple observation, but though Snape is right with it there seems to be more to his words, safely hidden beneath the obviousness.

Harry wonders briefly what it is he doesn't voice freely but on second thought decides it's useless to brood about it. A little unsure she meets his gaze and can't stop asking herself why she's doing this, coming to Snape´s office, waiting that he does the first step.

But then he does a step, coming closer. One smooth movement and he´s standing so close his robes fall over her feet. Her whole being narrows down on his face. Dark eyes gazing intently at her, glittering with something she can't grasp. Thin lips, slightly parted, move even closer than his body.

“It´s all a game for you, isn´t it? Everything the girl-who-simply-refuses-to-die wants she gets, isn´t it so?”

Harry inhales, but before she can answer, Snape´s mouth is on hers. Harry´s heart beats so violently it seems it wants to escape its cage.

Snape´s hands get hold of Harry´s shoulders. The grip is hard, almost bruising. His fingers dig painfully in her flesh as if he´d try through this connection to hold on to his self-control.

The light touch of lips turns into a firm pressure. Harry makes a soft sound and Snape´s mouth retreats. His hands stay.

“Why?” Snape asks.

Harry shakes her head, she doesn´t know what he means.

“Why do you do this?” His grip loosens.

Harry laughs breathy, more a soft snort through her nose, without real humour.

“I don´t know why. I want to.”

Snape´s hands fall to his sides, clenching into fists.

Harry rolls her eyes.

“To hell with your precious self-control and kiss me already,” Harry says, fists some of his robes into her hands and pulls him against her. Snape opens his mouth, but Harry cuts him off. “Don´t even start. I know you want to, so blast your doubts and do it.”

Harry is surprised that she, even three seconds later, still stands in Snape´s office and doesn’t lie face down in the corridor. She lifts daringly her chin and arches one eyebrow.

“As you wish...” An unpleasant smirk flits over Snape´s face before he dives. His mouth crashes forcefully against Harry´s while he wraps his arms around her.

Snape kisses her hard and demanding. Their teeth clink against each other and his tongue invades her mouth without hesitation, thrusts violently in and takes possession of Harry.

Harry feels giddy, her knees are wobbly and only her own hold on Snape´s robes and his arms around her prevent her from tumbling to the floor. Her whole body cries for air and begs at the same time that Snape doesn´t stop kissing her.

But finally he pulls away, panting, and brings some distance between them.

Harry breathes and looks up but finds not the expression she´d anticipated.

Snape looks completely unaffected, only his breathing and the reddened lips don´t match.

“Satisfied?” he asks calmly.

“No,” Harry says and steps close again.

“Pity,” he drawls, turns around and opens the door for her. “Go.”

Harry licks her lips but refrains from arguing as Snape stares at her, coldly.

“Good night. Dream of me.”

She hears his huff as he closes the door.

 

**Day 20**

Almost boldly and with a grin, Harry descends to the dungeons. She knocks three times and is not disappointed as mere seconds after the last knock the door opens. Snape peers down at her, his lips curl in an expression of annoyance, but Harry steps up to him, smirks and pushes him back into his office. She kicks the door shut and finds herself a moment later pressed against the same as Snape claims her mouth.

But today Harry is prepared and doesn´t simply allow him to do as he likes. She brings one arm around Snape´s neck, tangles her fingers into his, surprisingly un-greasy, hair and lays her other hand on his biceps.

Snape´s tongue pushes its way past her lips, but Harry is ready to fight and she moans softly as she succeeds and licks into his mouth. Snape´s hands roam over Harry´s sides and suddenly she loses ground as he hoists her up. More out of reflex than anything else, Harry wraps her legs around Snape´s waist, his hands move to cup her arse to help her support her weight. The kiss relocates again more into her mouth. Snape grinds his hips into her and Harry hears his low moan, more like a groan or faint growl, right before her feet touch the floor again and Snape jerks away.

His hair is tousled and his lips are moist and red as he stares with wild, aroused eyes at her.

Harry smirks as her gaze darts below his belt and spots an undeniable bulge.

“Out!” Snape spits out and turns away even before Harry moves far enough from the door to open it.

 

**Day 21**

Snape does not open.  Even after the fifth turn of knocking the door stays stubbornly closed.

Morosely Harry makes her way back to the common room. She has anyway far too much homework to wait any longer. She huffs while walking faster.

*

At dinner she tries to gain Snape´s attention but he still ignores her readily.

“Harry, stop staring,” Hermione whispers awkwardly.

“He ignores me. Why does he ignore me?” Harry mutters and pouts.

She watches how he stands up, her gaze following him all the way through the Great Hall. As he reaches the doors, she rises, too.

“Don´t do that. Really. He´s our teacher, you shouldn´t…”

But Harry listens no longer and walks quickly but without fuss after Snape. The entrance hall lays deserted in front of her, from Snape no trace. As Harry reaches the stairs to the dungeons, someone grabs her from behind. Harry squeaks alarmed, but her attacker spins her around and she looks surprised into Snape´s dark stare.

He crowds intimidatingly her personal space and edges her against the closest wall.

“So easily scared, Potter?”

“No, actually not.” Harry lifts her chin, stubbornly refusing to feel intimidated. But all her effort crumbles as Snape roughly cups her cheek and tilts her head further up.

“You don´t know what you´ve started, you silly girl,” Snape whispers and presses his mouth on Harry´s.

But Harry neither minds nor bothers whatever it is she'd started as long as this man ravishes her mouth in this delirious way he does and holds her against his body.

Snape growls softly and nips her lip. Harry flinches and tastes blood.

“I told you, don´t play games, Potter.” Snape licks the trace of blood from his lips and strides away, his robes billowing behind him.

 

**Day 22**

Never before had she felt something like this. Her whole days are filled with nervous, excited energy. All because in the evening she can go down to the dungeons for a detention with Snape. If that doesn´t indicate that she loses her mind she knows not what does.

But she´s not only excited, a part of her is actually afraid of the man, of his intensity and the repetitive threats to keep away.

Had she made a mistake? Harry stares out of the window. No, it doesn´t feel like this. But there is another question. One that bothers her despite how much she enjoys what she´s doing.

How far is she willing to go? Until now it is only the kisses and a little groping. But Harry is no fool, even if Snape certainly sees this different. She´s well aware that he is none of her classmates and won´t always remain with snogging. And that is the problem. Harry is not sure if she is ready for more, though she doubts that Snape would want to hear any of this if she keeps going like she does. Not that she can´t imagine giving in to him but at the same time the thought of losing her virginity to a man like Snape is frightening.

Remains the main question though, would he stop if she asks him to? She has no answer for that and is afraid to find it out by trying.

*

The door stands already open as Harry arrives for her daily detention time. Snape sits behind his desk, eyes on the door, chin on his steepled fingers.

A bit sheepishly Harry closes the door and hesitantly walks closer. Her heartbeat speeds up the longer Snape´s intense stare is directed towards her.

“Come here,” Snape says calmly and indicates to round the desk. As Harry stands in front of him he extends his hand and pulls her between his parted legs. His hands settle on her hips while his gaze never leaves her face. “Are you frightened?” He sounds seriously curious.

Harry swallows and, don´t trusting her voice, nods, shortly, one brief up and down movement of her head.

“Astonishing prudent.”

He narrows briefly his eyes and then stands up. One hand stays on Harry´s hip while the other touches softly her neck. Softly. Harry had not thought the man capable of gentle caresses, but nothing in the world or beyond could bring her to complain about it.

With his thumb, Snape strokes lightly over Harry´s cheek before he traces her lips and slips the finger into her mouth.

The feeling of Snape´s thumb in her mouth is strange and the taste is salty but otherwise gladly clean. But before Harry can think any more about the matter the finger disappears and Snape´s tongue repeats the movement by licking the shape of her lips and slipping then between them.

He kisses her slowly and unhurried. Harry feels like he tries to map out her whole mouth, each and every nook and fold. Slowly he pushes her back to his desk, where he lifts her up and places her on it. He abandons her mouth to kiss and nibble on her jaw and then further down her neck to the crook where it blends into her shoulder.

Harry enjoys his attention with closed eyes. Her hands rest against his chest and side. A low content humming sound vibrates in her throat as he sucks the skin above her collarbone.

And then all of a sudden Snape´s demeanour changes. His mouth returns to Harry´s and his tongue probes her lips just to dart in the moment Harry parts them only a bit. With his upper body he presses her back against the desk while his hands roam over her sides. One of his hands finally halts and cups one of her breasts. He kneads it and pinches her nipple through the fabric of her clothes.

Harry gasps surprised and feels for the first time with Snape the throbbing heat of her rising arousal.

Snape presses himself against Harry and she can´t help but moan as his pelvis rubs over her. He answers this with his own moan and moves again against her.

All shyness is gone at this point alongside any doubt if she´s ready for more. Harry wraps her legs around Snape, pulling him closer and writhes under him to increase the friction.

Their kisses are frantic and both moan into each other´s mouths and then all of a sudden it is over. Snape backs away and refuses to look at her.

Harry groans at the loss, though she feels her cheeks glow with not only arousal.

“What…” she starts but Snape interrupts her.

“Go! Stop coming here!” he barks and emphasizes his words by dragging her on her arm to the door and flinging her outside.

Naturally Harry wakes in this night with her own hand between her legs and to a traitorous wetness in her slip. The fading images in her mind showing Snape doing things to her she'd never before even imagined.

**Day 25**

Harry had kept her distance, like Snape had demanded. That had been maybe the first time she actually obeyed him. But now after two days, Harry feels itchy, an unexplainable urge to see him. And most of all ask him why he sends her away all the time. Maybe she should finally ask what it is for him what they are doing.

So as todays Potion lesson is over, Harry stays behind, stalling for time as she deliberately slow rinses her cauldron. Once every classmate is gone, she turns and finds herself under the burning stare of the man she ´d missed in the strangest of ways over the last days.

Bravely she returns his gaze and slowly walks to his desk.

“I thought I´ve dismissed the class,” Snape says coolly.

“I wanted to see you,” Harry says cautiously, inching closer to the scowling man.

“You just sat two hours in my class. I assume you had sufficient time to see me.” Snape raises an eyebrow.

Harry smiles sadly. She stands now right next to him, her fingers brush almost his arm and she wants to touch him properly but doesn´t dare to.

Snape leans back in his chair and gazes long and intently up to Harry. Then without warning, he pulls her towards him. Harry stumbles and lands rather ungracefully on Snape´s lap. But obviously he doesn´t mind and helps her positioning to straddle his thighs. His mouth finds her lips and willingly Harry opens to him. The kiss deepens quickly, becomes more urgent, passionate. Snape´s hands roam over Harry´s body, seek out her breasts and palm them. Harry gasps softly as he rubs over her sensitive peaks. She arches against him, presses into his touch and moans as he sucks on her neck.

Nimble fingers find their way under her student´s robes. Snape detaches his mouth from her and pulls the robes over her head, throwing them carelessly aside. Her shirt follows swiftly. The thin fabric of her bra is the last obstacle in his way to her breasts but he stops there. His mouth finds back to her neck where he licks and sucks to the hollow of her throat. Unexpected Snape bends further down and bites not too careful in one of Harry´s erect nipples. She hisses in pain and leans back. Her movement brings their hips closer together and Harry feels clearly Snape´s hard length press against her.

Tentatively she rocks against him and Snape groans. His hands shoot down to grip her arse. He bucks up, rubs himself at her while he pushes her down against him.

Harry moans. Even through her jeans the friction and pressure are perfect. She rolls her hips again and again, spiralling closer to her release. And then Snape stands up, he slams her on his desk and grinds his hips frantically into her.

Harry cries out, surprised, aroused and a little bit frightened but the onslaught of sensations doesn´t stop, if at all everything becomes more intense and she feels her muscles tighten and spasm as her orgasm consumes her.

“Oh god,” she sobs and tightens her arms and legs around Snape.

Snape groans, growls, clenches his teeth, jerks his hips furiously forward. His hands on her hips grip Harry so tight they might leave bruises.

“Fuck!” he roars and pulls away. Harry flinches and opens her eyes. Snape´s face is a contorted mask of frustration and arousal.

“Severus?” Harry asks softly, timid. She slides from the desk and gently lays her hand on his shoulder.

Snape spins around and grips her wrist, his hand clamps so tight around it, Harry feels her fingers go numb. But her other hand is free and she strokes in an almost not there touch over his crotch. And then she presses into him, presses her hand firmly against his erection, ignores the pain in her wrist and grins satisfied as Snape closes his eyes and moans.

“Don´t push me when you don´t mean it,” he warns her lowly. But Gryffindor she is, his warning falls on deaf ears. Instead Harry grins mischievously and rubs the heel of her hand over his throbbing erection.

His mouth crashes in a brutal kiss down on her. Harry gasps and stumbles back against the desk.

“Finish,” he growls into her mouth and opens his trousers.

Harry is unsure what exactly to do and hesitates but Snape drags the hand he still holds down to his crotch. Tentatively Harry wraps her fingers around his hot, hard flesh and strokes him softly. After a few hesitant strokes Snape´s hand covers hers and he shows her how he likes it. He speeds her moving hand up and meets each down movement with a thrust.

Harry licks nervously her lips and glances into Snape´s face. He still clenches his jaw and his eyes are tightly screwed up.

The snaps of his hips become faster, erratically and then, for Harry completely unexpected, he shoots in warm waves his release over Harry´s hand and on her breasts and stomach.

His breath comes in loud pants. Harry considers to say something, anything, but Snape´s eyes open and with a derisive sneer he pulls away from her.

“My, my, the saviour of the wizarding world gives handjobs like a common whore,” he says silkily and thrusts a stack of paper towels, he took from who knows where, into Harry´s hands. “Clean yourself and get out of here.”

 

**Day 26**

Harry is still more than unsure why Snape had insulted her the last day. Hadn´t it been good? Had she done something wrong?

The whole day Harry broods about what could´ve triggered his reaction but can´t find an explanation, except it was her fault.

As it is time for her “detention”, Harry sweeps down to the dungeons, determined to do better.

Snape opens, already with an unpleasant smirk, and the bad feeling in Harry´s stomach, though mild, is at once confirmed. Snape pushes her against the closest shelf and dives for her mouth. His hands tug and pull on her clothes.

Harry is frightened by her own reaction to his rough treatment of her, but she can´t help moaning as Snape fondles her breasts. And then he rubs one hand down between her legs and Harry is glad she decided to wear a skirt today, as the relative thin material doesn´t do much in stifling the feeling.

“Have you ever sucked a cock, Potter?” Snape rasps in Harry´s ear, his hand rubs feverishly over her. Harry has no breath for an answer and shakes her head. “You should try it,” he whispers and Harry comes with a small cry.

But as soon as she calms down from her high Snape pushes her at her shoulders to the ground.

She doesn't want to give him again a reason to insult her and so she opens willingly his trousers and wraps with more confidence than she feels her lips around his erection. The feeling and taste are strange but she imagines sucking something else and finds it not that hard to find a rhythm.

Snape buries his hand in her hair but doesn´t do more. That is until he comes closer to the end, when he holds Harry still and thrusts into her mouth. Harry gags and tries to relax, but it won´t work. Tears streak down her cheeks and she thinks she can´t take it anymore as Snape pulls back and comes all over her face.

Harry splutters and screws her eyes up.

“Look at me,” Snape demands almost gentle and Harry obeys. She opens her eyes and tilts her head up.

Snape grips her chin and smears with his thumb his seed over her cheek. A tiny smile curls his lips.

“Beautiful.”

Harry is surprised and her own smile starts to form on her lips as the moment is over.

Snape turns away and tugs himself back into his trousers. With a flick of his wand the mess on Harry´s face vanishes.

“Severus?” Harry asks softly and follows him across the room.

“Get lost,” he says casually, almost bored but his eyes flash in a way that says clearly: Don't dare to argue.

“Good night.” Harry waits a second but gets no reply.

Why does he always kick her out? What is this for him?

Harry frowns and thinks heavily on her way back to her common room.

 

**Day 27**

"Hey Harry," Ron says cautiously and flops next to her on the sofa. "How are you? I mean, we haven't seen each other much lately with all your detentions and you are rather quite and I thought..."

"I'm fine, Ron," Harry interrupts her friends rattling with a dismissive gesture. "And I need to go. Snape doesn't like being late." Quickly Harry scrambles to her feet and scurries away before Ron can reply anything.

The small knot in her stomach grows. She hates lying to her friends, but she can't exactly tell them that she's rather eager to go to Snape in the evenings, can she? Oh Merlin and what would they think if they'd know what happens in those detentions? Ron would probably get sick and Hermione would lecture her endlessly about inappropriate behaviour.

No, they really needn't to know.

With rising excitement and a smile, Harry knocks at Snape's office. The door opens but Snape isn't behind it. Instead he sits at his desk, quill in hand and scowls down on the parchments in front of him.

"Potter..." he drawls and peers up.

Harry licks nervously her lips as his gaze travels over her body.

"Close the door and undress."

Harry starts, certainly she misunderstood him.

"Sir?"

"Close the door and undress," Snape repeats with a hint of annoyance.

Harry swallows and closes the door but then hesitates.

"Now?" Snape inquires with a predator-like smile and gleaming eyes.

"No," Harry answers with trembling voice that causes Snape's eyebrows to crawl slowly higher up his forehead. Cautiously Harry walks around his desk, Snape follows every movement with his eyes, now narrowed and biding.

Harry stands next to him and tenderly touches his cheek. She likes his forwardness, his roughness and intensity but she wished he would simply embrace her, be gentle, at least once.

"Either you undress or you can go."

Snape turns his head away and bends back down over his work. Harry's hand falls down to her side. Maybe she has just to take what he was willing to give, even if it was only this, neither romantic nor gentle.

"Why don't you help me?" Her cheeky tone suffers a little through the still existent trembling but all in all it's better than her shaky no from before.

Snape smirks and gracefully stands up. Quickly and efficiently he works on buttons and clasps and only a moment later Harry stands bare in front of him, shivering lightly in the chill office room.

A shy red tinges her cheeks and creeps lower until it colours the skin down to her breasts as his gaze roams over her naked form.

Softly Snape draws an invisible line from her chin down to her navel, his gaze follows his finger and then he kneels down and presses his nose between her legs.

Harry squeaks surprised and jumps away. Snape's eyes glitter strangely as he looks up to her.

"Sit on my desk," he says and sits back down into his chair. "I want to taste you."

Harry's eyes go comically wide and her face heats up in an embarrassed blush. She shifts from one leg to the other, her hands are clasped together in front of her, covering her but only insufficient.

"What's that Potter? Suddenly tired of playing?" Snape drawls, his gaze affixed to her quivering form.

Harry keeps quiet, clueless what to reply to that.

"Very well. Take your clothes and leave. Don't even consider to come back."

"Why are you doing that?" Harry asks quietly, a ping of hurt in her voice.

"Doing what, Potter? Didn't you like what we did? Didn't you practically beg for it?"

"I mean...you are always so...You make me..." The more Snape sneers the fewer sense make Harry's thoughts and she snaps her mouth shut.

"I advise you to make good use of the Hogwarts library I'm sure somewhere inside you'll find a dictionary to extend your vocabulary." Snape grins meanly. He flicks his wand and Harry's clothes fly into her arms.

By now Harry is close to tears. Against better knowledge she takes a tentative step towards Snape. He snaps like a bow string and pins her in the blink of an eye against the shelf with butterflies. One of the glass boxes tumbles to the ground and breaks with a loud clatter. The fragile butterfly inside gets pierced with shards of broken glass.

Harry flinches. But nothing more happens. Snape stands in front of her, gazing down in an unreadable expression.

Slowly Harry extends her hand, but touching his chest works like breaking the spell. Snape grips her arm and hauls her out in the corridor.

"I'm done with your ridiculous games. Don't dare to come back or you'll regret it," Snape hisses more than he speaks, throwing the door into Harry's face.

Trembling Harry stands starkers in the middle of a school corridor while unnoticed tears streak down her face.

 

**Day 28**

The stars fade slowly as the night sky turns into a gloomy grey. The rain sizzling down for hours now gets stronger and splashes against the window. Harry sighs. Her forehead is cold from leaning against the cool glass, additionally chilled by the rain. And also the rest of her body is cold and stiff from sitting all night long in the nook in front of the window and looking sightless over Hogwarts.

Why couldn´t she stop thinking about Snape? He hadn´t given her any reason to do so. Actually, if considering the past days carefully, he were only demanding bordering on imperious and not overly gentle. She´d been so entranced by the events and his intensity that she never questioned what he did, not really anyway. Having any kind of sexual relationship or encounter was far too exciting to give anything else a second thought. But he had sent her away yet again, thrown her out and told her to never come back.

Does that mean she was for him nothing but…what? A little amusement, a sex toy, a whore?

Harry sighs again, more deeply this time. Her breath fogs the window and Harry draws a question mark in it.

She´s certain she wants more from the man than only those sexual diversions. But what does Snape want?

**Day 29**

Harry hurries after her last class with a quick apology for her friends away. She reaches the dungeons and then the Potions classroom just as the last students file out. With terribly beating heart, Harry squeezes past them and closes the door from inside the classroom. Snape looks up as the door makes a soft thudding sound. Instantly he narrows his eyes, his mouth turns into a grimace of disapproval.

“Potter, is your half-witted mind not capable of remembering anything one tells you or did I articulate myself in any kind unclear?” Snape snarls.

“Neither.” Harry manages a wan smile.

“Then, pray tell, why are you here?”

Harry crosses the room and stops next to the teacher´s desk. She can feel her heart in her throat and her hands shake slightly, damp with sweat.

“You confuse me,” she whispers. “On the one hand you kiss me like you´re about to die of thirst and I´m the water preventing it but on the other side you shove me away and act like I´m disgusting vermin you stepped into accidentally.” Plucking up courage, Harry inches closer, lifts her hand and strokes in a feather-light touch over one side of Snape´s face. He furrows his brow as he closes his eyes, his lips pressed tightly into a thin line. “You´re so intense I don´t know if it frightens or arouses me.”

Snape´s eyes snap open and with a jerk he jumps to his feet, towers intimidating close over Harry.

“This is your game. You started it. But obviously you´re oblivious to the costs. Like always. Just the reckless Gryffindor, playing games and pranks.”

“Why do you insist that I play a game? Have you still not realised that I´m serious about it?”

Snape laughs, a short merciless bark. One hand closes around the back of Harry´s neck and he pulls her flush against his body. Then he bends down, his lips touch the rim of her ear and Harry shivers.

“What else can this be than a joke at my expense?” He licks the edge of her ear hotly, feels her trembling in his arms. “You´re frightened already? Then you should be glad I never played truthfully along in your little farce, Potter. Do you really think I exaggerate when I tell you you´re not safe when I lose my restraint? You would hardly enjoy what I´d do to you when I´d get my way.” His teeth scrape over her throat and Harry´s trembling turns into slight jerks that rock her whole body.

“You don't mean it,” Harry says stubbornly, though her voice is thin and feeble.

Snape growls and then suddenly Harry hits the wall as he pushes her roughly against it. His mouth is everywhere. He licks, kisses and sucks a hot trail from her jaw to her collarbone. His hands tug and tear on her clothes until they find a way beneath her robes. Feverishly he strokes over her breasts, kneads and pinches painfully before abandoning them and sliding down over her stomach, down below her navel and disappear into her pants.

Harry gasps. She whimpers and mewls. The sensations are overwhelming, her head spins, her emotions fight each other. Shame and embarrassment, arousal and fear. Harry opens her eyes with a start as Snape pushes one finger inside her, the heel of his hand rubs over her and with a sudden outcry she digs her fingers into his shoulders. Her orgasm crashes in wild waves over her. Harry clings to the man holding her up against the wall. She sees his pleased smirk and then his hand slides away from her. Harry´s eyes go wide as Snape sucks one finger, the one that had been in her, into his mouth and closes his eyes as he hums appreciatively.

“Delicious,” he all but purrs and then he is all over her again. Her clothes fall piece by piece to the floor but Harry doesn´t notice it until she´s completely naked. All her attention is fixed on what Snape does with his mouth, first as he kisses her and then as he licks a hot trail down to her navel. Harry trembles with a new wave of arousal as he arrives at her groin and licks it languidly without touching her throbbing centre. And then he stands up again.

“Is that really what you want?” Snape asks hoarsely, his voice thick with his own arousal. But before Harry can do more than try to think of a reply he sucks hard on her bottom lip and uses the moment she gasps in surprise to thrust his tongue into her mouth.

Vaguely Harry notices how Snape fumbles on his trousers. Her mind screams in alert as she sees his feral expression and becomes gradually more urgent as Snape forces her roughly to the ground.

“Some games get quite dirty, Potter. You should consider this the next time before you even start them.”

Harry stares at Snape as she finally, in all its cruel clarity, processes what he is about to do, what his words mean.

Snape´s eyes are even darker than usual and his breath comes in ragged, laboured pants. His trousers are pushed down to his ankles and Harry feels his erection rub over her thigh before he aligns it with her entrance.

“No,” Harry whimpers. “Please, not like this. Severus, please…” She sobs, her whole body trembles and shakes. Weakly she shoves at his shoulders. “I´ve never…Oh god, please. I´ll be yours. But not like this. Not like this. Please,” she splutters and sobs more but it´s too late. Harry tenses as Snape breaches her. She claws on his shoulders. It hurts. It hurts more than she ever imagined it would and he gives her no time to adjust to him, get used to the feeling, before he slams all the way in. Harry whimpers again, a broken sound that carries whispered words, “It´s no game”, and Snape freezes. His whole body stiffens as her words finally sink into his mind alongside the realisation that Harry still had been a virgin.

He jerks away. Abruptly as if he´d burned himself. With churning expression he shies away, eyes wide with horror.

Harry stays motionless on the floor. The cold from the stone floor seeps into her, adds to the chill left by Snape´s assault. 

Eventually Harry rolls into a tiny ball. She can´t, don´t want to, believe he did this just because he still thought she played a role. He´s maybe no nice man, as he puts it himself, but he´s no rapist. She refuses to think of him like this. But here she is on the freezing cold floor in the dungeons and she can still feel his mouth, his hands on her, him in her.

A soft touch on her shoulder startles her. She flinches away from the touch but wills her eyes open. Snape leans over her his usually so cold black eyes clouded with something that might be regret and pain. Maybe the first real emotion she sees from him.

“Harry…” Snape croaks.

But she can´t. Not right now. Harry shakes her head and scrambles to her feet. Frozen and numb to the core she picks up her clothes from the floor and dresses hurriedly with trembling fingers.

Snape lifts his hand and Harry sobs, a pitiful sound at the back of her throat.

“Don´t touch me.” She stumbles backwards. Her legs barely support her weight as she feels her way along the wall, her eyes never leave Snape, who´s still kneeling on the floor.

 

**Day 30**

Harry lies in bed, curled up into a ball, with her knees under her chin and her arms tightly wrapped around her legs. Her blanket is tugged under her and leaves no howsoever small hole. The air is hot and stale, breathing gets harder with every second.

She missed every class and meal so far. She knows her friends are worried, but Harry doesn´t care.

Annoyed she hears the door to the dormitory creak open and seconds later the mattress dips down.

“Harry. Please come out. Talk to me,” Hermione pleads softly. Harry doesn´t move but listens more closely as she hears noise from downstairs. But already a moment later she knows the source.

“Granger, get out of here!” Snape barks.

Harry screws her eyes tightly up and hopes that if she doesn´t give a life sign he will disappear again. He says nothing for several minutes and Harry almost dares to hope he might be gone. But of course this is Snape. He doesn´t simply disappear because she wishes for. More the opposite.

“Miss Potter…Harry,” he says softly, the correction in his address hesitantly and unsure.

Harry tries to think she´s not really here but somewhere else, somewhere without Snape standing at her bed. But it´s no use as she knows he´s there, standing next to her and waiting for her reply, most likely he would wait the whole night or however long it takes her.

Steeling herself, she pushes the blanket away and sits up, carefully lifting her gaze to look at the men who…to look at Snape.

Suddenly tears fill Harry´s eyes and spill hotly over her cheeks, accompanied by hitching sobs. She sees Snape flinch but then he does something surprising, maybe for both of them if his expression is any indicator to judge. He sits down next to her, leans equally back on the headboard and pulls Harry into his arms. Her first impulse, however, is to withdraw, scramble away. But irrational as it might be, this, Snape holding her gently and stroke softly over her back, is exactly what she wanted all along. So instead of fleeing, Harry inches closer, buries her face into his chest and cries until her sobs fade into light sniffling and her tears dry, leaving itching trails on her cheeks and her eyes puffy and red.

“There´s nothing I can say to apologise to you,” Snape whispers into Harry´s hair. She feels his breath warm on her scalp and hears the low rumble of his voice in his chest. His arms tighten ever so lightly around her.

“You never believed I´m sincere,” Harry murmurs and then pushes herself away to look at Snape.

“I can explain it if you want to listen.”

Harry shrugs and nods at the same time, rubbing irritated over her face. Snape watches her closely and then reaches inside his voluminous robes and hands her a handkerchief, crisp-white with black, lacy embroidery. Harry dabs cautiously at her eyes, dares not to soil it.

Snape grins at this but gets serious momentarily as if he remembered how inappropriate a grin in such a situation is.

“Go on,” Harry says finally and creases the handkerchief between her hands.

“As the first mysterious letters arrived I was confused but somehow touched. Later, and that have you observed quite right, I was outright flattered, undeniable. Not for the life of me had I ever imagined it's you who wrote to me. But it **was** you and you confessed everything had been just a joke.

I´m not blind. I know how I look and I know the flaws in my character. I´m everything but the dream of a young woman like you.

And then you started coming to my office. And yes, I thought you tried to mock me, extend the joke. You came back every evening, even though I chucked you out each time. I'd planned to ignore you, but you kept coming so I decided to teach you a lesson, to play along to your oh so funny Gryffindor game. I thought if I'd push you only far enough you would stop and confess that you don´t mean it. But you didn´t. You let me kiss you. You let me touch you. And I had to admit to myself that I started desiring you. I anticipated and feared every single evening the last two weeks. I hated myself for feeling something for you.”

“But that makes no sense. You were rough, demanding and cruel. You never showed any kind of feeling.”

“I wanted to be gentle with you Harry. Merlin knows I wanted, but I couldn´t. I thought you were not honest to me. So what sense had it made? Besides I intended to scare you off not invite you to make more fun of me.”

“I wished you´d be nicer to me. I wanted you to hold me and not push me around, but at the same time I thought I could cope with it as long as I can be with you.” Harry stares down on her knotted hands in her lap.

Snape sighs heavily.

“I´m sorry Harry. I never thought…”

“Yes. I understand. It´s not like we´ve been on especially good terms with each other for years.” Hesitantly Harry looks up and finds Snape return her gaze openly. “Damnit this is twisted. My mind says to me I should be mad with you, for everything you did to me and what you took from me. But I can´t. I still want to be close to you and that´s why I forgive you.” With frantically thrumming heart Harry crawls back to Snape and over him, straddling his thighs. “Don´t push me away again. I won´t survive it,” she whispers and leans in. Her lips touch his. For a moment happens nothing. Harry feels panic rise in her chest and she's about to withdraw as strong arms encircle her body and Snape moves his mouth softly against hers. Slowly Harry relaxes into the embrace. Warmth spreads through her body. Snape slides his hands under her shirt. He caresses gingerly her back and Harry pulls away from the kiss to let Snape tug her shirt over her head. Her hands push on his clothes and to her astonishment he helps her after a moment open the ridiculous amount of buttons.

One piece after the other their clothes fall to the floor, while they explore each other´s bodies.

Snape´s attention leaves Harry breathless and flushed to the soft swelling of her breasts. Snape kneels over her, looking his fill. A light smile grazes his lips as he strokes over Harry´s taut stomach. And Harry can´t stop looking at him in return, marvel his pale skin and lean form but especially the tenderness in his fathomless eyes.

But then Snape bends forward and his eager erection brushes over the junction of her thighs. Harry closes her eyes, her teeth worrying painfully her bottom lip as she freezes into place.

“No, please. I won´t hurt you. Harry look at me,” Snape says alarmed but gentle. Reluctantly Harry opens her eyes. “You must believe that I´m not the man I showed you the recent past. I may be also not overly cuddly and tender but I´m no heartless bastard.” Cautiously Snape unclenches Harry´s fists and brings them up to his chest, placing them flat on it and waits.

“I don´t know if I can,” Harry whispers, more a breath carrying faint words.

“Ok. You don´t have to.” Snape releases her hands and sits back against the headboard.

“But I want to,” Harry says, now a little firmer. Snape gazes at her and chuckles lowly.

“Gryffindor stubbornness…Come here.” He holds his hand towards her and waits until Harry sits astride his legs again. “Then take the lead.” He pulls her closer until she leans flush against him.

A nervous bubble grows inside Harry, but her heart beats excited and as Snape pushes lightly against her, she lifts her hips and sinks with closed eyes down on him.

Snape wraps his arms around her and they sit like this until Harry feels comfortable enough to move. As she does, only a slight rocking motion of her hips, Snape gasps softly into her hair.

Soon Harry gains more confidence and not long later the dormitory is filled with the creaking of the bed and the sounds of their lovemaking.

With each roll of her hip, Harry rubs against Snape and feels slowly the tension growing inside of her, her soft gasps evolve into breathy moans and soft groans the closer she comes to her release.

“Look at me,” Snape says as Harry´s movements become more urgent. His hands on her hips push her against him and helps her gain friction. Their eyes meet as Harry lifts her head from his shoulder. And then she closes her eyes and throws her head back as she reaches her climax.

In wide circles of her hips she rides it out and blushes as she opens her eyes again and Snape gazes at her with slightly opened mouth and breathing heavily.

“You´re beautiful like this.” He combs his fingers through her unruly hair and claims her mouth in a slow, leisured kiss at whose end Harry is nonetheless breathless again.

“You haven´t…” she says slightly sheepish and wriggles a bit.

Snape hums against her neck and moves them until he lies on top of her. Harry swallows, but even before Snape can reassure her she chides herself inwardly for being stupid. She wraps her arms around him and pulls him closer.

A soft gasp escapes her mouth as he pushes inside her. This is so different from being in charge herself. But she learns quickly that she´s not damned to endure whatever he wants to do in this position but can work with him together.

Each moan from Snape encourages Harry further and soon she moans with him while he speeds his thrusts and pounds faster and harder into her.

“Harry, come for me again,” Snape pants and thrusts into her. Harry claws on his arse to increase the friction between them and then sucks a breath in and clamps around him. Snape snaps his hips only a few more times and follows her in his own release, with a low guttural groan.

“No, don´t move. Stay like this,” Harry begs as Snape wants to pull away, even though her legs feel soar from the unfamiliar position. But Snape moves anyway, regardless her protest. But he stays and lies next to her, pulling her into his arms.

After a few moments of silence Harry pushes herself up on one elbow.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” Snape raises his eyebrows questioningly.

“What is the real Severus like? Because you said it wasn´t really you the last weeks but I think today it was neither.”

Snape lets his breath out in a puff, rubbing with his free hand over his face.

“Well…It´s most likely something in between.”

“Ok.” Harry nods. “I don´t mind when you´re rougher with me. Actually I liked it. But don´t and never again force me into something.”

Snape keeps silent but returns Harry´s gaze seriously.

“Where do we stand now?” He asks finally after Harry has settled back into his arms.

“I hope at the beginning of a greater game,” Harry says slightly teasing but peers cautiously up, gauging Snape´s reaction.

Snape smiles. An expression almost never seen on his face but which suits him remarkable well. He shifts to lie on his side too.

“Foolish, reckless Gryffindor,” Snape retorts fondly.

Harry grins.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> Please leave kudos or comments if you liked it (both is welcome too! ;) )


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